There are few things that would drag a typical teenager out of bed early on a Saturday morning, but defending the honour of a beloved band from tabloid attacks is probably one of them.

Around 100 My Chemical Romance fans had already gathered at Marble Arch, in central London, by 10.30 this morning - not bad given that organisers had given the protest a 12-hour window, of 10am to 10pm, and that there was a last minute change of venue.

The fans were objecting to Daily Mail reports describing My Chemical Romance as a "suicide cult band" and linking the recent suicide of a Peckham schoolgirl, Hannah Bond, 13, to the fact that she had started following the band two weeks before her death.

The Daily Mail has called the New Jersey-based band one of the foremost of the "suicide cult" groups forming part of the "emo" phenomenon. The paper described "emo" as a teenage trend that started in the US in the 1980s and was "characterised by depression, self-injury and suicide". Its followers, the tabloid said, wore tight jeans, studded belts and wristbands and had dyed-black hair and long fringes obscuring their faces.

The atmosphere at the protest was more carnival fairground than riot, with fans clutching balloons and soft toys and singing My Chemical Romance songs loudly and passionately - but not always tunefully. Lyrics included "teenagers scare the living shit out of me" and "I'm not afraid to keep on living".

The overwhelming majority of the crowd were young girls, bouncing with energy and shrieking with laughter as they rushed over to hug their friends or chanted: "Don't blame MCR!"

A few were dressed in typical dark, "emo" fashion but most followed the request of the organisers, who had written on the website: "Please consider dressing to suit the day ... Don't try to dress stereotypically." Many of the fans had homemade shirts with positive slogans such as, "Think happy thoughts."

Protesters came from all over the country, including Brighton, Oxford and south Wales and even a few who had made an overnight roadtrip from Cornwall.

Tabitha Reed, 14, travelled up from Brighton with her mother and sister and several friends and camped out at her grandmother's house in London overnight.

"I love MCR, it saves lives. The Daily Mail are liars and all they want to do is put the youth against the adults; they just hate us and it's really unnecessary, it's just wrong," she said. "I've read a couple of the [Mail] articles and they've actually misquoted lyrics and the research was so badly done, it was unbelievable. I actually thought [the story] was a hoax when I found it on the internet."

Vikki Bourne, who came to the protest from Crawley in West Sussex with her daughter Kayleigh, 15, and their dog, Jack, said they were both huge fans of My Chemical Romance and had a closer relationship as a result.

"Emos are being portrayed as self-harming and suicidal and miserable and they're not," she said. "Since my daughter met the friends she's got, she's happy, she's got a social life, she's not suicidal, she's got confidence. It's about the music and being friends and having fun. I wanted to come here to say that, as a parent, I support what she does; [the band] are not cult, they're safe and I'm happy."

The organisers had originally planned for the protest to gather at the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens and march to the Daily Mail offices in Derry Street, off High Street Kensington.

The plan was altered after discussions with police because of concerns about the lack of space on the pavement opposite Northcliffe House.

Instead the main protest was at Marble Arch, while small contingents of 30 people at a time kept vigil at Northcliffe House. The latter groups were ringed in by barricades but police at the scene and Associated Newspapers security staff said there had been no trouble.

"It's a waste of time, there's no one here today," one security guard told MediaGuardian.co.uk. "Look at them - they're eating their lunch and their mums are off shopping."

One of the few boys to attend today's protest, Craig Goodwin, 17, from Upminster in Essex, said he was there with the blessing of his parents.

"They didn't mind - my dad used to do protests because he was a rocker back when it was mods and rockers, and my mum liked My Chemical Romance, so she didn't care, either," he said.

"I know people who've done it [self harm] in the past but they've always come through it. Some have listened to MCR and it's built their confidence up so they could come back like they were before."